Wednesday night I once again broke my weeknight concert rule to see Mat Kearney and his acoustic trio tour in Ridgefield. I opted to skip VIP this time and just do the show.
Marc Scibilia opened the show and I really enjoyed his set. (And me enjoying openers hasn’t really been a thing this year!) What I didn’t enjoy is somehow every time I am ridgefield I get the rudest concert goers next to me. This time it was a couple where the woman didn’t know personal boundaries (she ran her hand up under my leg at one point, what? Why? I was fully in my own seat space as well) and her male counter part was loudly mansplaining what singer/songwriters do and how a couple of Marc’s songs could be great but he just wasn’t there. I doubt Marc could hear but why the heck are you talking trash *through* his set?!
Before Mat came on I snagged a setlist from an earlier show to follow along and it was almost identical, save for I assume the part in the show where he takes an audience request (ours was Breathe In, Breathe Out). He tried to work Ridgefield and Connecticut into a few of his songs which is always sweet and teased he had no idea where he really was because we seem to be so close to everywhere but that he had always enjoyed playing this room. He also asked who had been to the last show before telling a story he had told before but either he didn’t or I had forgotten so I was happen to hear it again about Learning to Love which he said may have been one of his favorite songs he had ever written and told us the back story on how it had come about. He asked us all to stand for the last song of the main set, Hey Mama, after a weird conga line formed and people “rushed” the stage. (Overheard after the show “are you ok? You left…” “I didn’t leave! I went up front by the stage!”) For the encore he did a song he claimed we were the test audience for about Oregon and closed the night out with Nothing to Lose.
Weeknight shows make for a tiring end of the work week, but this show was so enjoyable I’ll push through (but maybe I’ll have a nap too)
